English 484A/Advanced Prose
Winter Quarter 2026
dshields@davidshields.com; www.davidshields.com
In-person; Mondays + Wednesdays from 3:30-4:50 in ART building, Room 006
OFFICE HOURS: Fridays 2-4p.m. in Padelford A414
& by appointment; set up via email or by texting me.
We can talk by phone or via Zoom.
Course Description: In class, students will read aloud their work and critique one another’s work. That is the crux of the course. This is not a course in fiction or nonfiction. This is a course in composition. In how to write an effective work of medium-length prose. You can write whatever you want: prose-poem, essay, fiction, hybrid work. You can also write a series of interlinked assignments.
Grading:
10%: Brainstorming
10%: Outline
10%: First pages
10%: Rough Draft
40%: Final Portfolio
20%: Participation
Participation counts; it will affect your grade. However, please don’t comment just to comment. Try to contribute judiciously, effectively, thoughtfully, and generously.
Course Texts: Life Is Short/Art Is Shorter: In Praise of Brevity (David Shields & Elizabeth Cooperman, authors/editors) available as a PDF via Canvas; the book is available as a paperback at UBS or via bookstores online, if you’d like to have a physical copy.
Class Schedule:
Mon, Jan 5: First day of class. An introduction to the course: what will we focus on? Not the very brief essay or story or prose-poem (1-2pp), as I do in 284, and not the medium-length story or essay or prose-poem (4-7pp), as I do in 384, but instead the “long” essay or story or prose-poem (10-15 pp). You’ll brainstorm and outline and draft and write and rewrite the same work throughout the quarter.
Wed, Jan 7: Discuss Tim Parks’s “Adultery.” Brainstorm together in class.
Mon, Jan 12: Discuss Leonard Michaels’s “In the Fifties.” Brainstorm together in class.
Wed, Jan 14: Discuss Amy Hempel’s “In the Cemetery.” Brainstorm together in class.
Mon, Jan 19th: Martin Luther King Junior Day. No class.
Wed, Jan 21: Discuss JS Foer’s “Primer.” Present outline.
Mon, Jan 26: Discuss Rick Moody’s “Primary Sources.” Present outline.
Wed, Jan 28: Discuss Lauren Slater’s “One Nation, Under the Weather.” Present outline.
Mon, Feb 2: Very first pages due and discussed.
Wed, Feb 4: Very first pages due and discussed.
Mon, Feb 9: Very first pages due and discussed.
Wed, Feb 11: First assignment due and discussed.
Mon, Feb 16: Presidents’ Day. No class.
Wed, Feb 18: Very first pages due and discussed.
Mon, Feb 23: Rough draft of entire work due and discussed.
Wed, Feb 25: Rough draft of entire work due and discussed.
Mon, March 2: Rough draft of entire work due and discussed.
Wed, March 4: Rough draft of entire work due and discussed.
Mon, March 9: Rough draft of entire work due and discussed.
Wed, March 11: Final class. Rough draft of entire work due and discussed.
Thursday, March 19, 5 pm: Portfolio due: final version due of long essay or story or prose-poem.